Fèis Ìle 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak and like many other events and festivals it was moved to an online format. One big aspect of a whisky festival is the festival bottlings and many festivals and distilleries retained their plans for a special bottling. Some replaced the original bottling with a different one like Bruichladdich, some didn’t release a bottling like Bowmore and some took their time to offer a festival bottling like the Diageo Islay based distilleries of Caol Ila and Lagavulin.
We don’t know what were the original plans for the 2020 festival bottling from Caol Ila but eventually it was revealed it’s a 16 Year Old Caol Ila finished in Amoroso sherry casks.
It was initially matured in Refill ex-bourbon casks and then finished in Amoroso treated Hogsheads, all personally selected by Pierrick Guillaume the Distillery manager.
We’ve seen Amaroso finished whisky from Diageo in the form of Talisker Distillers Edition but it’s not too common out there.
Caol Ila 16 Year Old for Fèis Ìle 2020 (53.9%, 3000 bottles, £120)
Nose: Strong and a bit sour vanilla – almost lactic. Sour sweet bright berries. yellow plums and gooseberries, maritime with gentle smoke, sugared lemon peels, more vanilla, ripe yellow green grapes. After a long time in the glass it becomes sweeter with almonds and nuttiness. Continue reading
Nose: Maritime bonanza, salty, brine, minerality and sea breeze. Vanilla, honey, hay, lemonade, lemongrass, soft smoke, cured meat and grapefruit juice. Lovely. 
Nose: Peated with sweet smoke, lemon, gentle tropical fruits, BBQ meat, vanilla, soft. After a few minutes there’s mint, floral perfume, more smoked meat and honey. Very much matured Caol Ila. 
Nose: lively and kicking but also very fresh. There can be no doubt this is a Caol Ila with all those classic Caol Ila notes: lemon, honey, seafood and seaweed, sweet peat but there’s also saltiness and bitter almonds to balance the sweetness.
Nose: Classic Caol Ila peat smoke, red apples, lemon, smoke and saltiness, malt cereals, cream, cured meat and after a while some fruity fragrance. It’s a mellow nose and not a very complex one but it has structure and backbone. With a few drops of water it’s fruitier with more honey, a touch of pineapple, extra vanilla and pears, richer and stronger. 
Nose: Dusty, oh so dusty, much more dusty than the 15 yo, that I had to re-check the bottle for whisky turbidity. Vanilla and honey, traces of peat smoke (even here you can’t really escape it ah?), pears, peaches and golden apples. After a few more minutes in the glass, it gets less dusty (although it’s still there in big way), sweeter and fruitier. 